Arcadia continues to trade and top up pension fund

AS Arcadia calls in Administrators, the 13,000 staff most of whom are on furlough, don’t know what will happen to their jobs although the action to bring in Deloittes has been to protect the group from creditors and there are currently no planned redundancies

In the meantime, Arcadia continues to trade online and the titular owner of the Group, Tina Green has confirmed that having already paid £50 (€55) million to the pension fund, she is about to pay a further £50 million even though it wasn’t due until September 2021.

Whilst in the long-term there are likely to be plenty of potential purchasers for brands such as Topshop and Miss Selfridge, this doesn’t mean that there will be any takers for the shops themselves or for the more staid brands such as Evans.

For a short period of time it seemed that Mike Ashley of Frasers and Sports Direct would be prepared to lend up to £50 million to rescue the group or to take it over, but this was not to be.

A knock-on problem has hit Debenhams who themselves are in Administration and were hoping to see a rescue from JD Sports but as much of the Debenhams business relies on concessions from Arcadia brands, that deal has also fallen through.

Spare a thought for shoppers in Gibraltar who have seen their BHS store close down and its replacement, Debenhams likely to follow shortly.

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